Unending Revised, Ship Free Version
by Cort 85
Summary: An alternate version of my original story that DOES NOT have any S/J ship. AU story that places Jack O'Neill on board the Odyssey during the events of Unending - a team fic.
1. Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5

A/N: Alright, this is just an alternate version of my original story for those that are not Sam/Jack shippers. I had an anonymous comment from 'Adam' for the sequel that said 'Interesting. It would be more interesting if it wasn't going to be a romance. You're a pretty good writer - can't you write something besides a Sam/Jack romance?' - So I have decided to also post versions of my stories that will not have any Sam/Jack ship, just friendship like they have with the rest of the team. I will make the 'ship-free' versions only after I have finished the original (shippy) version so as to not accidentally omit a part that is still needed for the storyline to continue.

These first chapters are almost identical to the original story since it did take me a little while to even get to the S/J scenes - the only changes are a few grammatical corrections and a few sentences that were deleted at the end of chapter 3. Chapters 6-10 will be posted shortly and are also the ones where most of the changes have to be made. This story will still have the Daniel/Vala ship that was in the episode, but nothing more that that. For everyone that is not a S/J shipper, this is for you and I hope you enjoy the re-write!

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Chapter 1 - Introduction

The secretary was having a hard time suppressing her laugh while maintaining her focus on the work that had to get done. It never cease to amaze her that in the year since she started this job that as often as he came here, that he never once seemed comfortable or relaxed. Sure, she had come to expect that a lot, if not most, of the people whose name were in the appointment book in front of her were nervous and /or anxious, the behaviors she typically noticed were sitting on the edge of the seat, eyes quickly and constantly moving about the room, and just generally being jumpy and on edge, but with him it was different.

When he came in he simply nodded at her and then took a seat in the corner pulling himself all the way back in the chair, almost like he was trying to avoid being noticed by anyone else. Then like clockwork, within fifteen seconds he would start pulling at his collar and tie and then after another minute move on to subtle pulls at the sleeves of his jacket and shirt. Perhaps the one thing that puzzled her most about his behavior was that, not only was he in the military, but he was a two-star General!

She just couldn't help but wonder how someone who worked their way through the Air Force, held a job at the Pentagon, and came by her desk to go into the next office at least once a week could appear so uncomfortable in Class A Dress Blues and yet be so calm, almost bored, in these surroundings that still made her on edge at times. Unable to come up with any reason, she decided it was time to turn her attention back to the task at hand, when out of the corner of her eye she saw him adjust his tie, again, and a little giggle slipped past her lips. Expecting him to ignore that like he seemed to ignore almost everything else, she was surprised to see him look up with a strange, yet quite peaceful look on his face. Before she could think about it further, the intercom on her phone buzzed and a voice said, "You can send him in now."

Standing up, she said, "General O'Neill, the President will see you now."

Suddenly remembering where he was, Jack stood up and managed to say, "uh, Thanks!" as he started walking towards the Oval Office. Those few steps gave him the chance to remember why he was here in the first place; this was the weekly briefing he gave the President on all matters relating to Homeworld Security, namely the Stargate program.

Jack opened the door to the Oval Office to see the President coming around from the back of his desk.

"Good afternoon Mr. President," Jack said as he shut the door behind him.

"Hello Jack, what's new this week?" he responded.

"It's actually been a rather slow week Sir, it shouldn't take me that long …" As the President turned to sit down there was a flash of white light and Jack was gone.

"… to bring you up to date," Jack finished from the bridge of an Asgard ship.

"Greetings O'Neill!" a familiar voice said.

"Thor, buddy! Doesn't appear you've lost your sense of timing. So what's going on this time?"

"I have come on a matter of great importance, The Asgard High Council wishes to meet with you."

"Well I have to say that I'm a little surprised to hear that. It's great to see you and everything but it's been so long since we have heard from you that …"

"I apologize for interrupting O'Neill, but time is limited and it is imperative that we depart for Orilla as soon as possible."

"Orilla? Wait, the Asgard home world? What's going on here Thor?"

"I'm sorry, but there is no time to explain. You, SG-1, General Landry and the Odyssey need to return with me. All will be explained upon your arrival."

To say that they were shocked was an understatement, none of them had a clue what they expected to hear when they met with the High Council, but what they had just heard left them all utterly speechless.

~A few minutes before~

"_As we speak there are several Asgard beaming aboard your ship to install some upgrades," Thor announced. _

"_What exactly is it that you are giving us?" Daniel asked. _

"_Everything we have and know. All our most current technology, all our knowledge," he simply replied._

"_You have always been so resistant in the past, saying that we weren't ready, what's changed?" Carter asked. _

"_While there are still many Asgard that believe that, the simple fact is that our latest attempt to solve our physiological degeneration left all Asgard with a rapidly progressing disease. As a race we are dying, very soon we will all be gone."_

When Thor finished that last statement, no one was able to manage any kind of response; they all just stood there trying to process what had just been said. It took them all a little while to get over the shock of what they had just heard. While they all merely continued to just stand there, the Asgard went over their plans and their motivations behind them. When it came down to it, the Asgard were going to destroy themselves before the disease advanced too far to keep their knowledge and technology from falling into the wrong hands. Their ultimate legacy was passing it on to the humans from Earth, the fifth race of an alliance, an alliance formed long ago over many millennia by four great races in the galaxy: the Asgard, the Nox, the Furlings, and the Ancients.

Chapter 2 – Unexpected Company

The Asgard were in the process of finishing the updates and installations on the Odyssey and were beaming off when their work was complete. Colonel Carter and Thor were in the control room for the new Asgard core going over the integration of the systems with the new technology. As Thor was finishing up his explanation, three Ori mother ships dropped out of hyperspace and the ship's sensors showed them heading towards the planet. With that revelation Sam said good-bye to Thor and he, along with the remaining Asgard, disembarked the ship. As the Odyssey proceeded to leave, they detected a buildup of energy coming from the planet; just after they enter hyperspace Orilla exploded leaving the Odyssey and her crew with the entire legacy of the Asgard race.

A short while later the ship dropped out so that Carter could run some diagnostics on the ship's systems. Before she had the chance to even start, a couple of Ori mother ships dropped out of hyperspace right behind them and start attacking forcing them to resume hyperspace.

After the same thing happened again when they dropped out it became pretty obvious that the new Asgard technology was giving off some sort of unique energy signature that was detectable from subspace thus allowing the Ori to track them. In order to temporarily fix the problem the Asgard core needed to be isolated from the hyper-drive controls, a process that would take about thirty minutes, which was unfortunately about twenty-nine and a half minutes too long.

To reduce any potential loss of life, O'Neill has Carter locate a nearby Stargate so that the crew may beam down to the planet and then proceed home, while himself, General Landry, and SG-1 remained aboard to try and come up with a way of saving the Legacy that the Asgard left with them.

As the last of the crew was beamed down to P3X-474 the two Ori ships showed up and opened fire on the Odyssey. The new Asgard energy weapons were quickly able to take out one of the Ori ships, but unfortunately at the same time the second ship managed to bring down what was left of the shield around their ship. As the remaining Ori ship fired what would be the fatal blast Carter activated a time-dilation field that places the ship in a bubble outside of normal time and space where years could pass for them while only fractions of a second would pass for anyone on the outside.

The plan that Carter had come up with was to recreate some of Merlin's out-of-phase technology from scratch from what they had on board so that they could take themselves and the ship out of phase and then simply let the blast from the Ori ship harmlessly pass through them. The only down side to the plan was that it would take a while to make the technology from scratch, but fortunately they had a three-month supply of food and water on board that could be rationed to last for longer if needed.

All things considered the first couple of weeks went by rather smoothly.

Cam dedicated a lot of his time to jogging through the corridors of the ship and the occasional training session with Teal'c.

Daniel immersed himself in the Asgard knowledge base wanting to learn as much as he could as fast as he could, all the while flatly resisting Vala's attempts at seducing him.

General Landry found that this was the perfect opportunity to read reports that had been backing up for longer than he cared to remember along with all of the paper work that accompanied them.

Carter immediately set about learning about the added capabilities that were available to her from the new Asgard core in order to proceed with her plan.

As for O'Neill, he decided that he was long overdue for a vacation from Washington D.C. and couldn't think of a better way to start it than with a DVD marathon of his favorite T.V. show, The Simpson's. It was times like these that he was glad he decided to invest in a second set of the DVD's to carry with him at all times. After all, with his past experiences of hurrying up to save to world, galaxy, universe, whatever (it happened so often that it was starting to blend together) only to have to wait to get to the point where there was actually something to do, he knew that it was bound to come in handy one day as patience was something that he had never been able to pick up.

At the end of the second week the in the time-dilation field, Carter had the unfortunate job of informing everyone else that there was no way for her plan to be successful. She had to tell them that is was not possible to take the ship out of phase while the field was still active and that there wouldn't be enough to do it afterwards, the blast from the Ori ship would reach them before they could take themselves out-of-phase.

Chapter 3 – The First Year

Carter had just finished delivering the bad news. Not only was their first plan not going to work, but also neither of their back-up plans would work either. Plan B was to beam down to the planet and gate home from there and plan C was to use the 302's to fly away from the Odyssey. Neither of the plans would allow them to save the Asgard core that contained all their knowledge, but that didn't matter because neither option allowed them enough time to escape the blast wave that would come from the ship. The only reaction that Carter received was stares of disbelief.

After giving everyone a moment to take in what she just said, Carter had one last piece of information to deliver.

With a decidedly more up-beat tone in her voice Carter said, "But hey, on the bright side I can modify the beaming technology with the matter converter so that we can literally manufacture whatever we need so we don't have to worry about running out of food and water…"

"So let me get this straight Carter," O'Neill interrupted "we are stuck here for god-only-knows long, possibly never able to get off and being able to manufacture food and water is supposed to make us what… excited?! Don't get me wrong it's nice to know we won't have to worry about running out of the essentials, like cake, jello, and coffee, but the two just don't balance out."

Without anyone saying another word, the meeting broke up and everyone went their separate ways.

The initial shock of their situation wore off after a couple of days, and within a week everyone had settled back in to the routine that they had established in the first week they were in the time dilation field; that this was an extended vacation that should be enjoyed, well at least in the way that they would normally enjoy a vacation.

Cam and Teal'c continued working out and training together.

Daniel dove right back into learning everything he could from the Asgard knowledge base, with Vala still pursuing him relentlessly.

With all of his paperwork caught up, Landry started tending to some plants on board.

Carter went back to working on trying to come up with a solution to the problem that they were in, a challenge that she would have enjoyed if not for the dire consequences that they all faced.

O'Neill resumed his Simpson's marathon and figured that if he was going to be here for a while that he should at least be comfortable, so he used the matter converter to create a nice, comfortable recliner for himself. If anyone asked about it he would just tell them that it was for his knees, an excuse which almost always worked without raising suspicion.

Around the start of the fourth month things started getting a little interesting on the Odyssey. Within a matter of days, the atmosphere on board completely changed.

The first major change came when during breakfast one morning Daniel and Vala were joking around and openly flirting with one another. Up until this point Vala had been constantly pestering Daniel about one thing or another while he pretended to be going over some information from the Asgard core, trying his best to ignore what was being said.

Teal'c finally spoke up and simply asked, "Dr. Jackson, what has changed between yourself and Vala Mal Doran?"

Daniel turned to look at Teal'c unable to say anything, while Vala started mumbling incoherently.

Letting out a little laugh, O'Neill interrupted and said, "T, isn't it obvious, they are seeing each other."

Teal'c only response was to raise one eyebrow.

"You know T, seeing each other as in sleeping together," O'Neill managed to say with a relatively straight face.

A moment of silence followed his comment, when Daniel finally asked, "Is it that obvious?" not seeing any point in trying to deny what had just been said.

At that point everyone turned to face them and simply gave a little nod saying that it was.

The next day O'Neill stopped by the room that had essentially become the equivalent of Carter's lab at the SGC. As he entered he said, "So whatcha doin'?"

Carter didn't even look up and said, "The same thing as yesterday, trying to figure a way out of this mess, Sir," grateful that unlike her lab on the base that there wasn't anything for him to pick up and fiddle with here. "Is there something I can do for you Sir?" she asked hoping that she might be able to get him out of here quickly.

"Well, actually I was hoping that you might use the matter converter to make a few bottles of beer," O'Neill said trying not to sound too desperate.

"I'm sorry Sir, but you know as well as I that alcohol is not allowed on board," Carter replied intentionally avoiding making any kind of eye contact, she really just wasn't in the mood for this today.

O'Neill then said, "Me no function beer well without."

"If you make one more reference to The Simpson's I'm going to have to have Teal'c destroy your DVD's," she said with a deadly serious tone in her voice.

"Come on, I'm just trying to…" but Carter cut him off before he could finish.

"Sir, we are all sick and tired of you going around the ship quoting The Simpson's all day. It never ends, ever since you finished your marathon you have been throwing out quotes left and right. Yesterday it was something like 'you've tried your best and failed miserably. The lesson is never try.' Now do you really think that that is going to help me to figure out a way out of this mess," Carter said almost yelling.

Seeing that his last comment had been the proverbial straw, O'Neill decided that he should leave before she had Teal'c follow through with her threat.

On the way back to his quarters O'Neill passed by Cam's and heard a lot of noise followed by a loud crashing sound. It was pretty clear that he had finally had enough of being cramped up on this ship and was quite literally blowing of some steam.

The next few days showed a noticeable rise in the tension between everyone evidenced by the strange lack of conversation during meal times. Finally one day the silence was broken when Vala said, "So Sam, would you like some extra help in your lab?"

After thinking it over for a second Sam happily replied, "You know Vala that would be great. Two heads are better than one and I've been looking at the same data for so long that another perspective might just be what I need."

After that the mood on the Odyssey lightened up quite a bit. The only ones that seemed to be enduring the situation well were General Landry and Teal'c, which seeing as how they are the only ones that are able to actually sit back, relax, and not do much of anything, it wasn't all that surprising.

That night after everyone had gone to bed, O'Neill snuck into Carter's lab to use the matter converter. He didn't want anyone else to find out about his hobby, Teal'c was the only other person that knew about it and seeing as how he hadn't told anyone about it in the six years since he picked it up, there was no reason that he would now. It only took a minute for O'Neill to manipulate the controls before a potter's wheel, clay, paint, glaze, and a few other small supplies appeared in front of him. After seeing the effects that his Simpson's marathon, and subsequent related commentary, was having on everyone else on board he decided that finding another way to occupy his time would help him avoiding being the first one to test the Asgard healing pods that had just recently been installed, so he figured that there was no better time than the present to get back into 'throwing'.

O'Neill would have to make at least one more trip back here to get a kiln, but in the mean time he headed to the one part of the ship that no one would ever think to look for him in, his office. Since he never used it the only things in there were a chair and desk with his name on it, which meant there was plenty of room for the new additions. After a couple of more trips to Carter's lab to use the matter converter, O'Neill had a decent sized kiln, more clay, storage containers to keep the clay moist, and some shelves for finished work. By the time he got everything back to his office and set up, it was time to call it a night and get some sleep.

The next day O'Neill was able to slip away after breakfast without be noticed and aimlessly wondered around the corridors of the ship eventually ending up at his office. After changing into an older pair of BDUs, to keep anything from getting on his other clothes and subsequently having questions asked about what he was doing, nope definitely wasn't going to take any chances, he got to work.

Ever since he took the job in D.C., O'Neill hadn't had much time for 'throwing', '_stupid, annoying paperwork'_ he thought, it was a lot harder to avoid it when you were 'the man'. The few hours between breakfast and lunch he spent relearning everything that he had forgot by not being able to practice that much over the last few years, and fortunately the learning curve was much quicker this time around.

After changing back into his other clothes, O'Neill began to make his way back for lunch. As he gradually went in that direction, he decided that this was the perfect time of day to get away and that when he did it again tomorrow he would try to make a pot and then slowly work his way up to more difficult items and designs.

It took about a week for O'Neill to settle into routine of having breakfast, 'throwing', lunch and from then until dinner he would check and see how everybody else was and what they were up to, careful to avoid any Simpson's related comments.

Carter wasn't quite sure what had changed, but whatever it was she, and everybody else, were extremely grateful for it. For the past month O'Neill had not made one comment about The Simpson's, and she was finally relaxed around him again, well as relaxed as anyone can be around a CO that was a couple notches higher in their chain of command. When he walked into her lab later that afternoon, it was just like the old days.

While walking through the doorway O'Neill said, "So whatcha doin'?"

Before Carter even had the chance to respond, Vala stepped in and simply said, "We are trying to find alternate ways to get out of this situation that don't end with our deaths."

"Yea, the whole dying thing gets kind of old after you already died a few times." He then just stood there for a minute thinking something over, while Carter and Vala stared at him, hoping and praying that he wasn't trying to think of a line from the Simpson's that would fit into their current conversation. He then suddenly spoke up and offhandedly said, "Wouldn't it just be great if we could go back in time and stop ourselves from ever getting in this mess in the first place," like it was the simplest thing in the world to do.

"I'm sorry Sir, but that just isn't possible, slowing down time within a localized field is not even close to the same thing as reversing time altogether… but it was a good idea," Carter said, somewhat disappointed that they couldn't.

After O'Neill and Vala left a little while later, Carter decided it was time she had a hobby, other than doing extra work, and figured there was no time like the present to start learning how to play the cello. It was something she had wanted to learn for more years than she wanted to count, but there had always been something else going on. The conversations from earlier had been playing over and over again in her head for a while now and it forced her to accept that this was one problem that she couldn't will herself to find a solution to. From previous experience she knew that if she kept at this pace for much longer that she would get burned out in the next couple of weeks and then not be of any use to anyone for quite some time after that.

The following day Carter did something that was completely out of character for her: she voluntarily took a day off from work. She had been spending so much of her time cooped up in her lab that she had no idea what everyone else on board was doing and wanted to find out.

Not surprisingly Daniel was going over the vast amounts of information that were contained in the Asgard core, and enjoying every moment of it. When he wasn't doing that he was with Vala, and their interactions together were so cute, she thought. They had only been together for a short while and were already acting like an old married couple.

Vala had calmed down quite a bit and had taken to roller skating through the corridors of the ship, and had pretty much stopped entertaining herself at the expense of the others on board.

General Landry had turned a few connecting rooms close to his quarters into a greenhouse. Since he couldn't do any bird watching on a ship stuck in a time dilation field in outer space, this was as close as he could get to enjoy the outdoors he loved so much. Not only that but he was getting tired of the oxygen being produced by the matter converter, it just wasn't right: oxygen was supposed to come from plant life not from an alien machine, there were some things you simply couldn't program machines to understand.

Teal'c and Cam had continued training with each other. When they weren't doing that Teal'c had taken to playing ping-pong by himself, and was getting really good at it. Cam on the other hand did a lot of running, and played the occasional game of chess with General Landry or General O'Neill.

Carter could not for the life of her figure out what General O'Neill was up to. He would disappear after breakfast and not show up again until lunchtime and nobody had a clue where he had been going or what he had been doing. She had even tried to follow him once but found it impossible to keep up with him. There was already one mystery Carter couldn't solve and the prospect of adding another to that, especially one that involved General O'Neill, was something she wanted to avoid if at all possible. But no matter what she did, said, or asked, she could not get one piece of information about what he was up to.

Six months passed with little variation in their daily routines, and before anyone knew it a year had gone by on the Odyssey.

Chapter 4 – Coping

Over the next five years the ship became noticeably quieter. After the first year came and went without any progress on getting out of the time dilation field, everyone on board began distancing themselves from each other to come to terms with the scope of the situation and adjust to their new and potentially permanent lives on board the Odyssey.

General Landry spent a great deal of time tending to his ever-growing greenhouse. When he wasn't doing that he would play chess with the others on board. Not only was it a good way to stay sharp but it also allowed him to check up on everyone else and see how they were really doing.

Daniel and Vala quickly became the stereotype of a couple that had been married for a lifetime: the cute little bickering that is more a battle of wits than a fight over any one thing, the finishing of each other's sentences and ability to understand the other's thoughts by simply looking in their eyes, and the frequent stolen moments and tiny gestures of love and affection. When they weren't together Daniel continued to learn everything he could from the Asgard core and Vala, out of habit more than anything, would still go to Carter's lab more as a show of silent support than to actually help solve the problem.

Cam had the most difficult time of anyone adjusting to his new life. He attacked his exercise with a new ferocity, much like that of someone preparing to compete in the Olympics, but even that wasn't nearly enough to settle him down. Training with Teal'c was the only release he had for his need for action.

As much a Cam and Teal'c were alike, they were also different; unlike Cam, Teal'c had absolutely no problem adjusting to this new lifestyle. Patience was something that T had learned early in life and was so much a part of him that it gave him strength beyond what anyone else would have thought possible. Over those five years Teal'c became like a mentor to Cam, imparting all that he had lived through and learned, giving Cam the means to find acceptance and peace in his new life.

Carter still tried to spend about half of her day in her lab coming up with ideas that yielded the same results as their original plans. It wasn't long before she deactivated the Asgard hologram that continually reminded her that, "That function is not possible". Over that time Carter's new passion became the cello, and it was what she dedicated most of her time to. She was able to use it to express her thoughts and feelings in ways that she had never before dreamed possible and was a release in every possible way that continually gave her the strength to continue to look for a solution of how to survive the Ori attack on the Odyssey.

O'Neill continued to keep his hobby a secret and became so skilled that any art gallery would have been jumping at the opportunity to showcase his work. It wasn't long before he realized that he wouldn't be able to keep working at the pace he started at. Well, actually he could but he would no longer be able to keep his secret because he would have to start filling up other free areas of the Odyssey and somebody would eventually start to wonder why ceramic pieces were showing up all over the place. So once again he had to find yet another way to occupy some of his time.

Chapter 5 – Merry Christmas! (Part 1)

After being stuck on the Odyssey for just over six years there was finally some holiday spirit to be found on board. Thanksgiving had just past and everyone was eagerly anticipating and preparing for their first real celebration of Christmas in years.

Vala took it upon herself to put up the decorations all over the ship, including mistletoe at every doorway she could find. As soon as Vala announced her intention of decorating the ship Cam and Daniel volunteered to help her out. Cam volunteered so that he could decorate the Christmas tree, it had always been one of his favorite parts about Christmas growing up and he wanted to make sure he had was a part of it. Daniel on the other hand not only volunteered to help with the enormous amount of work that would be required but also to keep an eye on Vala, someone had to make sure she didn't get carried away.

General Landry, Teal'c and Carter took it upon themselves to prepare all the meals for Christmas day, O'Neill had also volunteered to help out with the menu and preparation of the meals, but was immediately met with a chorus of "No" from everyone else.

Carter was the first one to speak up after everyone quieted down, "Well Sir, it's not that we wouldn't appreciate your help, but you know the saying about having too many cooks in the kitchen…" she said not looking directly at him. Carter knew she needed to say something other than what they were all thinking and that was the best she could come up with, how could she say that they wanted a menu that didn't have the word 'beer' in the name of every food that was being offered.

O'Neill instantly realized that he should find another way to contribute and announced, "Well since you all appear to have the major areas covered, I'll just have to come up with something else to do. Hope you like surprises!" he said with a smirk on his face as he left them to wonder what he was up to.

Christmas was now only a few days away and everything was ready. The menu had been decided upon and all preparations that could be done in advance had been done and the ship was now fully decorated for the holiday. O'Neill said he had finished with his contribution but despite their many attempts, no one had been able to figure out what he had been up to. With nothing else to do at the moment they had all taken to sharing their favorite stories about Christmas and the traditions that they grew up with. Within in no time at all it seemed, it was Christmas Eve and everyone couldn't wait for the next day. It was unanimously decided that everyone would go to bed early; mostly because that was something they were all use to doing on Christmas Eve.

O'Neill, like everyone else headed to his quarters early, but not to get some sleep, he had a lot to get done before everyone woke up and needed all the time that he could get.

Christmas morning arrived quicker than O'Neill would have liked, but despite having gotten only a couple hours of sleep he was more excited than anyone else and was trying not to show too much of it, he couldn't have any of the other getting curious as to why.

With nothing but time on their hands, everyone took their time eating breakfast and enjoying each other's company. Towards the end of breakfast, O'Neill casually said, "It sounds as though everyone has gifts to exchange with each other, to make things a little more interesting, why don't we only mark who the gift is to and make a game of guessing who gave the gift." After he finished O'Neill went back to finishing his coffee, not wanting to appear too interested in the response to his suggestion.

Vala was the first to speak up and said, "A game sounds like a great idea!"

Daniel responded immediately after saying, "It would be a great way to start a Christmas tradition for all of us, and give us another reason to look forward to this part of the year" sounding more like the archeologist he was when he first joined the Stargate Program.

Hearing the excitement in Daniel's voice everyone else readily agreed that this would be not only a good idea, but a fun one as well.

To get all of the gifts under the tree without seeing who put them there presented a bit of a challenge, but after a moment's thought Carter said, "We can use the Asgard beaming technology to get the presents from our quarters to the base of the tree while the room is empty."

They all then went to Carter's lab and took turns operating the controls for the beaming technology and then proceeded back down to the mess. The gifts were sorted out by the person they were to and then they drew straws to determine who would open the first gift and General Landry's name came up first.

After looking at the gifts in front of him for a moment, he decided upon a very tiny and lightweight box. Upon opening it he simply found a folded note that read 'It might be a good time to water your plants…' and read it to the others. Figuring that he needed to go to his greenhouse for the gift, they all followed him there to see what was waiting for him.

General Landry didn't really know what to expect, but when he opened the door to the greenhouse all he could do was stand there with his mouth open, never could he have even dreamed of such a gift. Looking around, every single plant, of which he had hundreds, in there was no longer in a plastic planter, but in clay pots with beautiful glazes in different shades of blue, green and brown. He had started walking around when the others entered a few moments later, all equally surprised, especially when it was pointed out by Carter that no two pots were identical and Daniel subsequently noticing that they all showed marks associated with pottery that is made individually by hand. Unable to even fathom an idea of who the gift was from, General Landry suggested that they head back and continue opening gifts, hoping that some of the other's gifts would shed light on his.

Daniel's name came up next. Deciding upon a different strategy than General Landry, Daniel decided to open the biggest gift in his pile, a box that was about two feet wide and three feet long and pretty heavy. After carefully moving it to a table, he opened it and found inside what appeared to be a mini clay replica of the Rosetta Stone. Upon closer inspection Daniel noticed that instead of the three Earth languages that were on the original, there were instead alien languages that belonged to the Four Races. A quick translation of the Ancient language, the one he was the most familiar with, revealed that the tablet said:

There was once an alliance of the four greatest races in the galaxy: The Ancients, the builders of our Stargate; The Nox, a race kind enough to bring us back to life when we died seeking them out; The Furlings, a group we have never met and know almost nothing about; and The Asgard, a gentle race who never surrendered and continued fighting until the end when they named a fifth race to the old alliance: The Tau'ri, and young race of humans from the planet Earth who still have much to learn and who have already learned so much.

The rest of the tablet had the same inscription in the other three languages. Not only was Daniel curious about who gave him this gift, but also about how they were able to accurately put the inscription in the four different languages. He was sure that this wasn't simply copied from another source, mainly because it was written in the perspective of one of them and not an alien race, so the question remained 'Who else on board would have enough of an understanding of these languages to be able to do this', and he kept coming up with the same answer that there was no one else besides himself.

Realizing that he was giving himself a headache, Daniel drew the next name out of a hat to continue on with what was quickly becoming a very interesting game. Vala, Teal'c, Cam, Carter and O'Neill opened their gifts next and all got gifts that were all very much alike, large, beautiful and detailed pottery all depicting different images.

Vala's had a fifty's roller skating theme; T's had a series of picture scenes showing his journey from First Prime to member of the Council of Free Jaffa; Cam's had depictions of every air craft that he had flown during his career; Carter's had a cello on one part and the music notes to one of her favorite songs on the rest; O'Neill's had a depiction of his secluded cabin and lake that had almost no fish in it.

O'Neill knew ahead of time that if he didn't want everyone to immediately know that he was the one who had given out these gifts that he would need to give himself one as well. After everyone had finished opening up all of the other gifts, he was even more happy with his thought to include one for himself because all of the other's were completely clueless about who had given them out and he was really enjoying the speculation amongst them.


	2. Chapters 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10

A/N: Ok, for all non-shippers, here is the second part of the story. Chapter 9 is now really short because of deleting the shippy moments, but I still wanted to keep the original number of chapters. Like I mentioned before, there is no S/J ship, but they are still friends so don't expect for me to have them completely ignore each other. I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 6 – Merry Christmas! (Part 2)

It didn't take that long for all of the rest of the gifts to be opened, but because of the speculation surrounding the first round of gifts no one wanted to confirm or deny giving any of the other gifts. With their stomachs still full from breakfast and their minds still trying to figure out who gave the wonderful gifts, they all decided to meet back in a few hours for the early Christmas dinner.

As Carter was leaving the mess, Vala called out and said, "Hey Sam!"

Hearing that Carter stopped and turned towards Vala as O'Neill was walking past her. Vala then spoke up and said, "Hey you two, you know what that means…" she finished with a big smile on her face.

At the same time Carter and O'Neill looked around and then up and noticed that they were standing in one of the doorways that Vala had put mistletoe in. "Oh, for crying out loud," O'Neill muttered glancing at Vala with a look that clearly said 'do we have to'.

"Vala, he my commanding officer, we are not going to kiss," Sam said, almost pleading.

"Well," Vala started to say, crossing her arms, "If you don't then you won't be going anywhere."

"Fine," O'Neill quickly said before giving Carter a quick peck on the cheek and continued leaving the mess without so much as a backwards glance.

Suddenly remembering why she stopped in the first place, Sam turned to face Vala and said, "Is there something you wanted?"

"Just wanted to wish you Merry Christmas!" Vala replied trying to hide a smile.

Carter instantly replied, "Merry Christmas!" and then turned and headed back to her quarters.

All the way back to his quarters O'Neill kept hearing what Carter had said about him being her CO. Over six years on this ship, away from Earth and everything thing else, and he still couldn't get away from the United States Air Force where, lately, he was always 'Sir' or 'General'. Even before this trip, it was rare for anyone to actually call him by his name and he was tired of it.

By the time he entered his quarters O'Neill had come to a decision that he should have made a very long time ago and headed straight for his laptop. As soon as it finished booting up he opened up Word and began typing…

_To General Landry, Colonel Carter, Colonel Mitchell, Teal'c, Daniel, Vala, and to anyone else whom it may concern should you ever be able to read this:_

_I, Major General Jonathan O'Neill, do hear by resign my commission as an officer in the United States Air Force effective as of twelve noon on this day, December 25, 2013._

_Signed,_

Major General Jonathan O'Neill

As soon as he finished he printed and signed the letter. With that done, he set the letter aside until it was time to meet back up for dinner and changed into some more comfortable clothes.

O'Neill then headed to his office to pick up his contribution to the Christmas celebration they were having. It was a platter for the turkey they would be having latter, on the right side of it there was a picture of Earth and on the left The Odyssey, in between there was Santa and his reindeer heading from Earth to the Odyssey with stars in a dark sky in the background. He knew that was a little cheesy but figured that since they would need a platter anyways that they should at least have a little fun with it.

A couple of hours later O'Neill was heading back to the mess with his letter in one hand and the platter, carefully wrapped up, in the other. This was definitely going to be a night to remember, O'Neill thought as he was walking. There was no way to avoid them trying to figure out exactly what his contribution was supposed to be, so he decided to come right out and show them. Oh how he couldn't wait to see their reaction, it was going to be priceless.

Once everyone arrived, O'Neill stood up and said, "Hey, I've got a couple of things I'd like to say before we begin." Seeing that he had everyone's attention he continued. "I'm going to keep this short since you all know I don't like speeches. First, here is my letter of resignation. Now before you say anything I would retire but seeing as how there is no one to approve it, my only other option is resignation. The bottom line is that I want to be able to be completely relaxed for however long we are on this ship and every time someone calls me 'Sir' I can't stay relaxed, so from now on it's just 'Jack'."

Looking around at everyone's faces it was clear that they were in shock and had not yet thought of anything to say, which gave him a chance to continue on. O'Neill then spoke up and said, "The other thing that I wanted to do while I have your attention is reveal my contribution to tonight's dinner." And with that he revealed the platter and placed it in the middle of the table and then took his seat.

It was a good five minutes before anybody had anything to say, and Daniel was the first to start to put things together and said, "Jack, that platter is just amazing, did you make that?" he asked not really sure what he would say.

Jack simply nodded and then Carter continued on with where Daniel's question was going, "So that means that if you made that clay platter that you also made all of those wonderful gifts that we all got earlier" Carter said with the sound of disbelief in her voice.

Jack got a big smirk on his face and just nodded again.

"But Sir! When? How?" Carter managed to get out still trying to process everything.

Jack then spoke up and said, "Sam, it's 'Jack' now. I'm not in the military anymore."

"Sorry Sss… Jack, it's just an old habit."

"Well, learn to break it," Jack replied. "I'm tired of constantly being called 'Sir' or 'General' and of being reminded that I am the CO for everyone on board. I want to be able to relax and have fun without constantly being reminded of the military, especially seeing as how we are about as far removed from the United States Air Force as humanly, or alien, possible. Just because this is a military vessel doesn't mean that we can't have fun, heck if I could do it on a base twenty-eight floors below the surface, then we can definitely all have fun out here on a stranded space ship."

As Jack finished, he had gotten this distant look in his eyes while almost everyone else present was digging through their brains trying to figure out what exactly it was that he was referring to.

"Umm, Jack, what are you talking about?" Daniel finally asked, while Sam, Landry, Cam, and Vala nodded in agreement.

Jack simply sighed and then said, "It was twelve years ago now, when Teal'c and I were stuck in those time loops…"

Over the next hour they all ate their dinner and Jack recalled the time he spent 'looping', specifically focusing on how he got started 'throwing'.

After a moment Sam said, "So that's what you did for months on end. I've always wondered what you did during that time."

Jack sheepishly admitted, "Yea, the best part about it was nobody remembered what we did. Although, it would have been nice if someone remembered that Teal'c and I set a few new records for longest golf ball drive… yep, that was a good time."

They had dessert a short while later, which of course included cake, and then they all decided to call it a night and went their separate ways.

Chapter 7 – Operor Non Abicierum

Jack was the happiest he had been years, too many years, and woke up earlier than he usually did and decided to take a little walk around the ship. Given the early hour Jack figured it would be safe to slip in to the Asgard core and look over a few things before anyone else woke up. Upon entering the room he was shocked to find Daniel already there busy reviewing sections of the Asgard history.

Jack decided it was best to stick with his usual tactics when entering an area where Sam or Daniel were immersed in their work and casually said, "So whatcha doin?" while walking around to find something to fidget with.

It took a moment for Daniel to realize that someone else was there and was speaking to him and then said, "Oh, just the usual… trying to learn as much about the Asgard as possible, I've been going over their history lately and am getting close to more recent events." After he finished reading the section in front of him, Daniel turned to Jack and said, "I never expected you to show up here, much less at 6am in the morning" glancing at his watch to confirm the current time.

With that comment Jack shoved his hands in his pocket and turned to face a nearby display and quietly started to speak, "Well… it's just that I've been so happy and at ease since yesterday that I slept better than I have in… well, let's just say too long, and I woke up early and decided to wonder about the ship. I didn't think that anyone else would be up and was a little surprised to find you here."

"Yea, about that…" Daniel started to say, "Vala had a little too much eggnog yesterday and is snoring really loudly, so I decided to come here and enjoy the peace and quiet."

Jack was listening to Daniel when he noticed what was one the screen in front of him and couldn't help but to let out a little laugh.

"It's not that funny Jack, everybody snores," Daniel said thinking that he was laughing about his situation.

All that Jack could manage to say was, "What, oh that. I wasn't laughing about that, although it is a little funny," not able to come up with anything else.

"Well if you weren't laughing at that, then what were you laughing at?" Daniel replied. Jack had started to say something about a Simpsons episode he was think of when Daniel noticed that Jack hadn't taken his eyes off the screen in front of him. "Hey, wait a second," Daniel interrupted, "Are you laughing at what is written on that screen?"

"Uhh…" was the only thing that Jack was able to say. He immediately got mad at himself for the slip-up in front of Daniel and knew that he would no longer be able to keep this secret any longer. With that thought complete he sharply turned around to face Daniel and simply stated, "Yea, don't you think it's kind of funny reading about their view of the first encounter with one 'Colonel Jack O'Neill, United States Air Force, Earth' as they put it?"

Daniel was so caught up in what Jack was saying that he replied, "Yea, I thought that section was pretty funny. Imagine that an alien race would see so much potential in our species just by meeting you, that isn't usually the first thing that comes to mind when someone first meets you… Hey wait a minute, all of these screens are written in the Asgard language. That means that you, you, you…" Daniel started mumbling unable to actually say it himself.

"That I can read their language," Jack finished for him, immensely amused with the look on Daniel's face. "In fact, I'm rather fluent with it, along with a few other languages: the Nox, the Goa'uld, definitely Ancient, and a little of the Furlings, although that one is a little more difficult since we don't have many samples of their language and have never met them but I still like to think that I'm as familiar with it as anyone can be," Jack finished with a smug, proud look on his face. Daniel just stared at him with his mouth hanging open unable to say anything.

Figuring it would be a little while, Jack continued "You know you really need to work on your translation of 'Abicierum' it means 'to give up' not 'surrender' like you said yesterday. I don't know why, but you have always had trouble translating it correctly since we encountered it on that planet with the broken time machine. I guess it's because you weren't able to spend as much time as Teal'c and myself studying the context in which it was used, not that I would wish that experience on anyone but…" Not wanting to dwell too much on that part of the time he spent 'looping' Jack continued, "Well let's just say that since that time I have 'not given up' learning about alien languages."

Daniel continued to just stare at Jack utterly speechless. Knowing Daniel would need time to digest everything he had just said, Jack announced, "Well all of that talking has made me hungry so I'm going to go get some breakfast and you can join me there when you have finished processing everything. I'm sure you will have plenty of questions and I'll answer them after I have a full stomach.

As Jack was leaving the room Daniel managed to say "Ok" as he disappeared down the hallway.

Chapter 8 – Of Froot Loops & Time Loops

When Daniel arrived in the commissary Jack was finishing up a bowl of Froot Loops and a big, hot cup of coffee was sitting across the table waiting for Daniel. Daniel sat down and started to drink his coffee as Jack finished up his cereal, both enjoying the quiet silence.

With his cereal gone, Jack decided to be the first one to break the silence, "So, Daniel… I'm sure you have a ton of questions so fire away."

Daniel sat there for a moment sipping his coffee when he slowly looked up with a strange smile on his face, "You know Jack with everything that has happened since I got up today the only thing I can think to ask you at this moment is 'When did you start eating Froot Loops again?' I had this long list of questions going through my head when I sat down and then I saw that you were eating Froot Loops and I kept trying to figure out when it was that I last saw you have any, it use to be your favorite cereal and then you suddenly just stopped eating it and I can't figure out why or when that happened."

"You know Danny boy," Jack started to say "that's probably the best place to start, but before I do you'll probably want to get some more coffee, this could take a little while."

"To answer your first question Daniel, I started eating Froot Loops again about…" after a quick glance at his watch, Jack continued "thirty minutes ago. As for your last two questions I stopped eating Froot Loops a little over twelve years because after having to eat them for countless months I lost my appetite for them. Every time I got the craving to have them after that all of those memories would come flooding back so I stopped eating them."

"Oh," Daniel cut in, "I remember, you said that when the loop re-set itself you ended up back in the commissary."

"Yes Daniel, back in the commissary with my bowl of Froot Loops right there in front of me" Jack finished gesturing to the now, almost empty bowl in front of him. "Well then, I do believe that is enough about Froot Loops, now it's time to move on to answers to some of the questions that you walked in here with."

"My… interest, yea interest, in alien languages started about a month or so into the time loops. I was getting bored learning the same few lines of alien text over and over again and started looking for other samples of Ancient writing to translate. I figured that if I did that I wouldn't be quite as bored and would still be learning Ancient, so basically a win-win for my sanity and the need to end the time loops. When we finally ended the time-loops I was initially thrilled to not have to translate any more of the Ancient language, but then after a few weeks I found that I actually kind-of missed it and translating became a way for me to relax while also giving me something to fiddle with during long briefings. As it turns out carrying around report folders and scribbling on a note pad doesn't draw any unwanted attention."

"Oh, so that's what you had in those folders," Daniel interrupted "Always thought that you had Simpsons' comic books in those report folders, or something along those lines. We, and I can speak for the entire base, never even considered that you had real work-related reports in there, we just figured you were trying to be discreet about your reading choices. Although, now that I think about it discreet isn't really one of your strong suits."

"Yea, yea, yea… enough about that Daniel. From there I eventually branched out to the other alien languages we come in contact with, and that's pretty much the story."

Daniel sat at the table quietly for a few minutes digesting everything that Jack had just said and organizing his thoughts, before he was ready to talk. "Ok I guess that makes sense in a 'Jack O'Neill' kind of way, it will take a while to get use to, but ok I can go along with that. What I'm having a little trouble with is all of the times you could have helped us out with your knowledge, especially all of those times you complained about how long it was taking to finish the translations on the Ancient ruins we constantly came across on other planets…"

Before Daniel could finish his sentence, Jack held up a finger and said, "Oh, but I did help out, just in my own way. Remember those times when I would point out something about a particular area of the ruins, or something along the lines, saying how it looked important or reminded me of a previous one where we found whatever it was we were looking for?"

"Yea," Daniel replied hesitantly, still unsure of where Jack was going with this.

"Well, whenever I did that it was based on what was in the text. While you got so focused on one particular area, I would walk around skimming the text in the different areas and then find some excuse to get you to focus on that part that had the information you were looking for."

There were a few minutes of silence and then Daniel finally spoke up, "Well I guess that answers all of my questions except for one, what were you going into the Asgard Core for? You seemed a little surprised to see me there when you entered."

"Ahh, remembered that did you… I was kind of hoping that with everything else going on that you would have forgotten about that. Well, it's quite simple really, I wanted to see how detailed their records are of the High Council Meetings," Jack finished as if it was the most obvious answer in the world.

"I know I'm going to regret asking this, but why?" Daniel asked.

"Well, do you remember that time when we gated to a planet and shortly after the sky started turning red?" Daniel nodded, indicating that he should continue. "Well I had that hologram meeting with the Asgard High Council to see if they could help us fix the problem we created, and when they said no I started making all of those… comments. I just wanted to see if they had a record of exactly what was said or not. I was particularly hoping that there were no references to my comment about Fyrer's mother," Jack finished quietly, looking down at the table.

"Yep, knew I was going to regret asking," Daniel said shaking his head.

"Well, I guess I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't remembered that way in their history. They were great little friends and allies, and well… I was just really hoping that that part wasn't in there."

"Well, then you will be happy to know that their records aren't that detailed when it comes to the High Council meetings," Daniel said with a bit of a smile on his face.

"Well, in that case, it was definitely one of my better insults especially when you consider the circumstances in which I came up with it."

Jack and Daniel stared at each other for a moment and then busted out laughing. This was the scene that everyone else walked in on when they arrived to get some breakfast.

Chapter 9 – Infinity

The few days between Christmas and the start of the New Year were filled with a sense of ease that nobody on the Odyssey had felt since they first boarded the ship many, many years ago. All of their troubles were forgotten, at least for the time being, and everyone was simply enjoying being with one another for the holidays.

Everyone had gathered together to have a team night like they use to have back on Earth: telling old stories from their individual pasts to get to know each other better, followed by food, drinks and a movie. The conversation continued around him as Jack's mind began to wonder and he thought about the past few days that they had had aboard the Odyssey and then had let out an unexpected laugh. Unfortunately this drew everyone else's attention and meant that they had stopped talking and were all now facing him, and wondering what was going on.

"Umm, Jack… was there something you wanted to add to Cam's story about his Aunt Emma?" Daniel asked, with the same quizzical look that was reflected in the other faces in the room.

"No, sorry. I was just thinking about how great the past few days have been and thought it was funny, in a weird sort of way, that it has taken us this long to really relax here," Jack said, making a gesture with his arms to the ship.

"Indeed, this time has been most wonderful," Teal'c said with a slight nod of the head.

Chapter 10 – Back to the Beginning…

In the years to come the end of the year Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's celebrations would evolve into a continuous and special nameless celebration where everyone simply enjoyed one another's company, being grateful that they were not in it alone.

Since that day everyone on the Odyssey settled into a routine. Before lunch time they all went their separate ways.

Sam diligently continued working in her lab with one noticeable change, everyone took turns coming by to visit her. They weren't there to try and help, even if they could, they were just there as a reminder to her that she wasn't in it alone and that she would always have their support. Much to Sam's pleasure, when it was Jack's turn he didn't even try to play with any doohickeys, he just sat there quietly working on his laptop. Despite her curiosity Sam chose to not even try and figure out what he was doing: he wasn't disrupting her work so she wouldn't disrupt whatever it was he was doing.

Daniel still spent time learning from the Asgard core, but not with the same intensity as before because now Vala was here by his side. Having Vala there, with her never ending curiosity, helped to remind Daniel how he got started in this line of work and in turn his passion was rubbing off on Vala.

Cam and Teal'c continued their training with a focus on maintaining graceful and fluid movements as opposed to aggressive, intense movements.

Landry could still be found in his greenhouse. The plants now required little attention so he simply walked around and enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere that they created.

When lunch time came around, everyone would meet back up and spend the remainder of the day together. It didn't really matter what they did as long as they were spending time together, in a way that most families struggle with and after all they had been through together they were definitely each other's family.

They started out playing a lot of chess with each other which quickly developed into a weekly tournament. Sharing stories from the 'good ole days', as Jack liked to call them, was not only a good way to pass the time but an entertaining way as well. Occasionally they would even indulge Jack and watch some episodes of The Simpson's and in exchange for their understanding Jack would give them lessons on 'throwing', it was a little awkward at first, but after a few lessons everyone started to really enjoy it.

And for the next thirty or so years that's how things continued on the Odyssey with little change.

In an effort to look at their problem in a different light, Sam started reviewing notes and security footage from their early time on the ship. She may not have figured a way to fix everything, but with the knowledge that she had managed to learn from the Asgard she had essentially surpassed what anyone could hope to learn in a lifetime, or maybe even two. With this new found knowledge, Sam was thinking, hoping, that there might have been something that was overlooked or dismissed at the time because she thought it was impossible.

One day while Sam was going over some of that information, she suddenly looked from her computer monitor and just started staring at Jack. Sensing that something was a little off, Jack looked up from his laptop only to see Sam giving him a strange look.

After a moment Sam suddenly said, "Oh my God Jack, you're brilliant!" before throwing herself back into her work in a way than Jack hadn't seen in years.

"Well, it's about time somebody noticed," Is all that Jack said before turning his attention back to his own computer, having long ago figured out that he wouldn't be able to find out what was going on in that mind of hers.

A few months later everyone was gathered around a table when Sam unexpectedly said, "I did it."

Not missing a beat, Jack replied "Did what?" while eying the desert plate he had gotten earlier.

"I figured out how to reverse time in a localized field." As soon as she finished that sentence, everyone dropped their forks and stared at her.

Realizing that none of them would be able to find their voice any time soon, she proceeded to provide an explanation. "You see, it didn't actually take me that long to work out the technical aspects of it once I figured out that it was actually possible… and in that area I had a little help."

"Ahh hah!" Jack said, really excited. "So that's was the reason behind that unexpected declaration a few months ago."

"Yea," Sam started to say "I had been reviewing old security footage and saw where you suggested that it would be great if we could just go back in time and not get into this mess. At the time I didn't even think that it was even possible, but after thirty plus years of studying Asgard knowledge I was able to see a way in which I might be able to get it to work."

Having finally found his voice, Cam spoke up "That's great! So when can we get this show on the road?"

All Sam could do was turn her attention back to her almost uneaten plate of food. "Sam," Jack said, "What's the matter?"

"Maintaining the time-dilation field for all this time has almost completely depleted the ZPM and the power source in the Asgard core."

"So…" Jack started to say, "We don't have enough power to make it work?" he asked, looking to his teammate to see if he was understanding her correctly.

"Hmm… There's irony for you huh? I create the field to buy us more time, I finally figure out how to undo it all, and that extra time is what makes it impossible."

"Are you sure?" Daniel started to ask, "I mean, if you had some more time could you…"

Shaking her head Sam said, "I'm sure."

"Hey Sam," Cam said after a while, "Do you remember when we were stuck out of phase? When you got shot and you had me use the power source from an Ori staff weapon to power Merlin's device," Cam finished, seeing a look of understanding on her face.

"We don't have anything even close to a power source that would be required to keep a reverse time field working for long enough," Sam said somewhat disappointed.

"Really?" Cam said getting up and walking towards Sam. Taking her hand, he led her to the observation window. "What about that?" he asked pointing to the Ori blast that was, albeit very slowly, approaching their ship.

At this point Daniel, Vala, Teal'c, Landry, and of course Jack joined them at the window, all quietly wondering what would happen next.

A few days later, all of their plans had been finalized and the time had finally come to set things right. Sam had made sure that all the power conduits were rerouted to go to the core to power the reverse time-dilation field; Teal'c had volunteered to stay old in order to provide a younger Sam with a crystal that would really, really quickly separate the Asgard core from the ship's systems and was behind a force field waiting for whatever would come next; everyone else was scattered around the ship, knowing that one way or another things were finally coming to an end.

With a slight movement of Sam's wrist, the time-dilation field was deactivated; the Ori blast struck the Odyssey, and in the middle of the destruction of the ship time was reversed to a minute before Sam would activate the field.

As soon as the field dropped around him, Teal'c quickly made his way over to Sam. Upon reaching her lab, Teal'c placed his hand on top of Sam's and gave her a look indicating that she should not proceed with this course of action.

"Teal'c, what are you doing?" a rather confused Sam asked.

"Now is not the time Samantha, insert this crystal into the ship's systems and then take us back into hyperspace," Teal'c said handing her the crystal that was in his hand.

Meanwhile…

On the bridge of the ship Jack started looking around, he could have sworn that Teal'c had been standing right beside him a moment ago but now he was nowhere to be found. Before he had a chance to ask if anyone had seen what happened to him, the ship jumped back into hyperspace. With this unexpected turn of events they did a quick scan and found that the Odyssey was not operating with any input from the Asgard core, which meant that they wouldn't be able to be tracked any more.

Instinctively, Generals Landry and O'Neill, Daniel, Vala, and Cam all made their way to Carter's lab, and hopefully some answers.

Before he even entered the doorway O'Neill started talking, "Carter, what's going on? I thought you wouldn't be able to get us safely back into hyperspace so quickly, that we were going to be in a time-dial field until you could figure it out. Also, did you happen to notice where Teal'c went off to?"

By the time he finished talking; O'Neill had reached to console in Carter's lab, where he found himself face-to-face with Carter and Teal'c.

"It's called a time-dilation field sir," Sam responded out of habit more than anything else "And as to why we made the jump to hyperspace, I was actually getting ready to ask Teal'c the same thing."

O'Neill, along with everyone else, turned their attention towards Teal'c.

"Teal'c" O'Neill started to say when he noticed the gray streak of hair that Teal'c had, "What's with the hair?" Jack asked, going slightly off-topic.

Gathering his composure, even though he never lost it, Teal'c began, "It is what you would call 'a long story'."

After Carter performed an analysis of the ship's systems to make sure that everything was indeed operating properly, they headed to the commissary to hear what Teal'c had to say.

"To start with, I should make it known that I am now 147 years old and while there is a lengthy tale, I can only divulge a small part of it. The risk of creating a time paradox is too great for me to risk divulging more that what is necessary."

"Nearly forty years ago, for me, Samantha activated the time dilation field to keep the Odyssey from being destroyed by a blast from the Ori ship. As you might have gathered, we were trapped for forty years. I am here now because of the work that Samantha did in finding a way to reverse time in a localized field. During those forty years she developed a way to sever the connection between the ship's systems and the Asgard core nearly instantaneously. The rest, as you might say, is history… that never really happened," Teal'c finished with a slight rise of his eyebrows.

"T," O'Neill started to say, "It's nice to see that you haven't lost your sense of humor. I do however have one vitally important question, when did you start calling Carter 'Samantha'?"

"It is her name, is it not?" Teal'c replied with a perfectly straight face.

"That's not what I meant and you know it, you have always called her by her rank and not her given name."

"It's ok Teal'c," Carter started to say before Teal'c had the chance to talk, "If you want to answer it, I don't see that causing a time paradox as long as you keep your answer simple."

Nodding in appreciation for her understanding of the concern that he would have, Teal'c proceeded to answer. "In the time that we have worked together, we have all been on the front lines, fighting a battle that was frequently putting our lives in peril. As such I called Samantha, and everyone else in the military, by their rank as a sign of respect for the sacrifices that they were willing to make. During the time that we were stuck on the ship, the constant danger did not exist and we all became as a family and it is customary for families to call one another by their given name."

"Thank you," was all that Carter was able to say.

SG-1 stood at the base of the ramp leading up to the Stargate waiting for the dialing sequence to finish while discussing the 'insight' that Daniel and learned from studying the Asgard knowledge base.

As the seventh chevron was getting ready to lock, Teal'c added one last bit of insight, "Good things come to those who wait."

As the seventh chevron locked in place and the Stargate was activated, General Landry wished them luck.

"Just another everyday mission to save the galaxy sir," Cam stated. To which all of SG-1 replied "Indeed."

The End

Alright, there you go – my non-ship version of Unending. I hope that you enjoyed it, and please leave a review to let me know. Thanks!


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